Museum Of Art

In 1948, the American painter Robert Motherwell dashed off an ink sketch to "illustrate" a poem the critic Harold Rosenberg had written for a short-lived magazine edited by the artist and his friends. The spontaneous abstract drawing, which Motherwell called Elegy No. 1, consisted of little more than a few black vertical bars and ovals set against a stark white background. ROBERT MOTHERWELL: MEANINGS OF ABSTRACTION / / Through July 30 / / Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive / / 443-573-1700 or artbma.

When Baltimorean Grace Turnbull was in her 20s and already had considerable experience as an artist, she felt strongly that she should take a life class -- that is, study from the nude model -- in order to gain an understanding of the human body. But this was in the first decade of the century, and she knew it would upset her parents."Mother's objection I felt I could overcome," she wrote years later. "But she told me solemnly that if I carried out my intention of working in a life class it would kill Father."

Ryda Hecht Levi, a philanthropist whose family foundation gives educational and arts grants, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at her Green Spring Valley home. She was 92. With her husband, banker-merchant Robert H. Levi, she collected works of major 20th-century sculptors, many of which are now displayed in a Baltimore Museum of Art garden that bears the couple's names. The Baltimore native was the daughter of Alexander Hecht, an owner of the old Hecht's department stores. She was a Park School graduate and earned a bachelor's degree from Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

More than 25 protesters gathered outside the Baltimore Museum of Art last night to warn the public about a man they call a bigot and what they call his 25-minute film of hate."

OSAKA, Japan -- When Yutaka Mino looks at the ancient Chinese scrolls, the blue-and-white Korean porcelain and the Japanese teapots and Buddhas that surround him at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, he thinks less of the past than of a future filled with opportunities. As the director of a museum best known for its extraordinary collection of thousand-year-old Chinese paintings, he sees room for much else: A museum gift shop. A cafe. A public-relations office. Educational programs.All American-style, he says.

In an intriguing 1967 book, The Success and Failure of Picasso, critic John Berger argued that the artist's inventive genius largely abandoned him after the stunning breakthroughs that led to the invention of cubism during the years 1908-1914. After the 1930s, Berger wrote, Picasso's capacity for formal invention gradually waned, leaving the by-then world-famous artist with little more to occupy himself than rehashing old formulas that over time became increasingly repetitious and stale.

Like universities, symphony orchestras and theaters, art museums depend upon donors to help defray the costs of running their institutions, whether they're paying the heat bills or presenting an exhibition. But which donors are considered acceptable? What do they want in return? When does quid pro quo become far too much?Questions like these suddenly are in the spotlight, thrust there by the flap over the financing of "Sensation," the controversial exhibition of British art on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. But most museum professionals -- while differing on many aspects of the debate -- agree that the questions raised by the Brooklyn affair are ever-present in the world of nonprofit cultural institutions.

NEW YORK -- Far more than has been previously disclosed, the "Sensation" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art has been financed by companies and individuals with a direct commercial interest in the works of the young British artists in the show, according to court documents and interviews with people involved in the exhibition.Faced with rising costs and the unwillingness of major corporations to support the show -- whose works have provoked furious protests in London and more recently in New York -- Arnold L. Lehman, the museum's director, embarked last summer on an aggressive campaign to finance "Sensation" by other means.

TOKYO -- The elevator girl chants in her sing-song voice: "Welcome. Women's wear, imports, formal wear," and the doors glide open. She bows like a mechanical doll -- at precisely the same angle every time -- and gestures toward the merchandise.Her passengers step into a crowded, edgy city of fashion boutiques. Glistening marble alleys wind past Max Mara, Escada, Calvin Klein and Yoshie Inaba vendors and converge in a miniature traffic circle where the street signs say Gucci and Chanel.This is the third floor of Isetan Department Store, the flagship venue of a $5 billion Tokyo-based retail chain.

After Arnold Lehman leaves the Baltimore Museum of Art, where he's been director for the last 18 years, we may find we miss him more than we expected to.It's quite possible that someone in, say, 2050, looking back on the Lehman period, will see it as one of remarkable and consistent achievement on many fronts, including collections, exhibitions, finances, audience, facilities, staff and education.But at present, as Lehman prepares to leave in September to become director of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the BMA has an image problem.